HOW DID WE EVOLVE FROM ANCIENT HUNTER-GATHERERS to modern consumer-
traders? Why are people so emotional and irrational when it comes to
money and business decisions? Bestselling author Michael Shermer
believes that evolution and evolutionary psychology provides an answer
to both of these questions through the new science of evolutionary
economics.
Drawing on research from neuroeconomics, Shermer explores what brain
scans reveal about bargaining, snap purchases, and how trust is
established in business. Utilizing experiments in behavioral economics,
Shermer shows why people hang on to losing stocks and failing companies,
why business negotiations often disintegrate into emotional tit-for-tat
disputes, and why money does not make us happy. Employing research from
complexity theory, Shermer shows how evolution and economics are both
examples of a larger and still somewhat mysterious phenomenon of
emergence, where one plus one equals three.
Along the way, Shermer answers such provocative questions as, Do our
tribal roots mean that we will always be a sucker for brands? How is the
biochemical joy of sex similar to the rewards of business cooperation?
How can nations increase trust within their borders? Finally, Shermer
considers the consequences of globalization and what will happen if
nations allow free trade across their borders.
Throughout this entertaining and surprising book Shermer considers the
morality of markets in a discussion of what he calls virtue economics.
Although we are selfish and altruistic, cooperative and competitive,
peaceful and bellicose, in the main the balance is heavily on the side
of good over evil. For every random act of violence that makes the
evening news, there are 10,000 nonrandom acts of kindness that go
unrecorded every day. Markets are moral and modern economies are founded
on our virtuous nature. The Enron model of business is the exception and
the Google motto of "Don't Be Evil" is the rule. The Mind of the Market
will change the way we think about the economics of everyday life.
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